THE GLOBAL AFRICAN COMMUNITY
H I S T O R Y N O T E S
BLACKS IN THE PACIFIC

By RUNOKO RASHIDI

DEDICATED TO SISTER CHARSEE McINTYRE

PART 1 MELANESIA: THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES!

Melanesia (the Black islands of the South Pacific) hasbeen described as the eastern flank of the Africanworld, an expression of ages past when anuninterrupted belt of Black people stretched acrossAfrica, Eurasia, Australia, Oceanica and ancientAmerica. In 1545 Spain made a claim on New Guinea, thelargest and most populous island in Melanesia. Indeed,New Guinea is the largest island in the world afterGreenland. It is tremendously wealthy in mineralresources, including uranium, copper cobalt, silver,gold, manganese, iron and oil. In 1545 Spain made aclaim on the island and called it Nueva Guinea becauseof the striking resemblance between Melanesians andWest Africans. Other Melanesian islands include NewCaledonia, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji, NewIreland and New Britain.

Split into two by colonial design, New Guinea hasuntil recently contained a racially homogeneous population of five to six million Africoid people. The eastern half of the island became independent in1975 under the name of Papua New Guinea. In a 1976interview, Foreign Minister Ben Tanggahma of Papua NewGuinea insisted that: "Africa is our motherland.

All of the Blackpopulations which settled in Asia over the hundreds ofthousands of years, came undoubtedly from the Africancontinent. In fact, the entire world was populatedfrom Africa. Hence, we the Blacks in Asia and thePacific today descend from proto-African peoples. Wewere linked to Africa in the past. We are linked toAfrica in the present. We will be linked to Africa inthe future." The western half of New Guinea, however, along with asignificant portion of the island's total population,has been seized by Indonesia.

Indonesians generally have a condescending view of Melanesians and consider them their racial inferiors. Under Indonesian rule since 1963, the Melanesians of New Guinea, known asKanaks, want their island to become an independentcountry run by and for Melanesians.

The struggle continues.

SOURCE:The Global African Community, By Runoko Rashidi